Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski says he’s making progress in his rehab

Thursday

After breaking his left forearm on two occasions last season, Rob Gronkowski says he’s looking to bounce back in 2013. The New England Patriots tight end says he’s making progress in his rehab.

Progress, he says, is being made.

“I’m doing a lot better definitely, feeling a lot better,” Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski said during an appearance on Wednesday’s edition of ‘Mike & Mike in the Morning’ on ESPN Radio.

“The arm is feeling way better than it was during the playoffs and regular season when I broke it. Right now (I’m) just rehabbing, getting the muscles stronger around it. You want to get everything activated, reactivated because it shuts down for a little bit when it’s healing.

“So (I’m) just rehabbing,” said Gronkowski, “and when my trainers give me the ‘good to go,’ hopefully in the next couple of weeks, hopefully as soon as possible so I can get rolling again, get back in the weight room, get back on the field and do what I love doing – running around, catching some balls.”

Too often last season, Gronkowski was unable to do that.

Gronkowski originally broke his left forearm while blocking on a point-after conversion in the fourth quarter of the Patriots’ 59-24 rout of Indianapolis on Nov. 18, then returned for the regular-season finale only to bust it again while diving for a pass from Tom Brady in the first quarter of the team’s 41-28 AFC divisional playoff win over the Houston on Jan. 13.

Three surgeries later – one for each of the breaks, another to clean up an infection that set in following the second procedure – Gronkowski says he’s looking forward to 2013 rather than back at 2012.

“It’s just unfortunate what happened,” said Gronkowski. “It’s just a rare occasion that it happened like that. I just went back in and it re-broke in a different spot. You really can’t do anything about it. That’s the thing. I rehabbed my first one many hours everyday and then go back out in the playoff game and you (try to) catch the ball on the sideline and you land on it and it breaks again.”

Now, he says, “the only thing I can do now is rehab it, get it better, get it 100 percent, and be ready for next season.”

While no one has ever questioned Gronkowski’s approach on the field – that would be difficult to do of a player who has produced to the extent that he has while earning two Pro Bowl berths in his first three seasons – his approach off it has been called into question at times.

That occurred most recently this offseason with a TMZ.com video of Gronkowski, wearing a protective sleeve on his left arm, body slamming an acquaintance on a stage at a nightclub in Las Vegas.

So much for the notion that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

“They’re my fans. They’re big fans of the Patriots. They just want to see the team do well, and I totally understand where the fans are coming (from),” Gronkowski answered when asked if he felt the outside criticism of his extracurricular activity bothered him. “They don’t want (me) to put myself in jeopardy of getting hurt, and I totally understand that and I would never do that – put myself in jeopardy.

“To the max, I love going out there every week and performing to the best of my ability, and I love going out there playing. I understand where they’re coming from. They just don’t want to see me hurt again and that’s totally understandable.”

Asked if anyone in Foxboro had spoken to him about such activity, Gronkowski said: “Whatever I talk about with the Patriots, we stay confidential. We don’t give anything out.”

Gronkowski was willing to admit, however, that he will miss veteran wide receiver Wes Welker, who signed with the Denver Broncos as a free agent earlier this month

“Wes was a great guy and a great player and a great teammate,” said Gronkowski, who made the rounds at ESPN to promote his candidacy for the cover of EA Sports’ ‘Madden NFL 25.’ “He’s definitely going to be missed around the locker room ... But it’s the business side of the NFL. You see it every year. You see it with every team. So you really can’t do anything about it.

“But he’s definitely going to be missed on the field, and it’s going to be a great game when we play him (at Gillette Stadium this year). Denver comes to us now so that’s definitely going to be something to look forward to, but when I see him he’s always going to be a great friend.

“It’s not like he did anything bad. He’s a good guy, and I wish him the best in Denver.”

Staff writer Glen Farley can be reached at gfarley@enterprisenews.com.

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